Greenbelt / Blog

Karen Stafford at the Street Child World Cup

SCWC

Greenbelt Head of Operations Karen Stafford is out in Durban at the Street Child World Cup, and has written about her experiences for their blog:-

Another 6am alarm call this morning; breakfast and on the bus by 6.45am and down to Umthombo where we have our daily briefing meeting. It's a quick meeting now we've all settled into our very varied volunteer roles; buddying the teams on their trips to local schools, timetabling the transport, confirming the match schedules and completing the epic task of washing and drying 100 football strips for the 2pm kick-off – there's plenty of work going on behind the scenes to make this unique and joyous event run smoothly.

But today was different for me, if not for the street children I later met. As we were about to leave for a meeting to discuss Sunday's closing ceremony a call came through from Tom; there was a tip off that street children were being rounded up by the local police. We joined Tom in pursuit of the police van he now had in sight in order to document and better still, attempt to prevent this action. We found the van pulled over outside a supermarket and as we approached the blue metal grill doors it was apparent that the eyes peering out at us were those of children. I took photographs as Tom spoke to the faces looking back at us 'How old are you?', you can hear the replies for yourself here.

As you can see the driver of the police van decided his best course of action was to speed off. We followed and he drove into an area we were prohibited from entering by other police officers. Eventually this ridiculous pursuit ended when the van entered a police compound. We parked up and entered the compound; about eight of us, mostly sporting Street Child World Cup t-shirts.

The defence of the police officer we spoke to was that these children were sleeping in old municipal buildings, they had therefore been trespassing. The police captains he told us, have orders from their superiors to 'keep the streets clean of vagrants'. The children had therefore been awoken with tear-gas and bundled into the back of the vans.

It took the arrival at the police station of a South African radio journalist we had called to give weight to our request to release the children. Plainly concerned that this had the potential to become a big media story during the week of the Street Child World Cup the captain quickly went out to release the children. Six children emerged from the police van, one of them wearing a Street Child World Cup t-shirt – the daily uniform of all us supporting this unique competition. Yesterday the boy wearing the t-shirt had been cheering on the South Africa team and here he was less than 24 hours later, rounded up but now fortunately released.

Umthombo are working hard to improve the lives of street children and today I saw Tom, Mandi and Biza fight face to face for the basic rights of children. The Umthombo drop in centre, Safe Space for street children provides just that, respite for the children; Umthombo's most pressing fight now is to ensure that the forthcoming FIFA World Cup does not escalate the round-ups of children and they are seeking resources from the city to enable them to extend their work.

Whilst the street children teams battle it out on the football pitch here this week, there are adults battling it out on their behalf and taking their fight to city representatives. It's hard work and mostly met with shocking resistance, but thankfully there are people working to give children a voice and a happy life.

You can see the footage of this incident and its aftermath in the latest video from Durban, posted below.

New video and match results posted daily at the Street Child World Cup website.

Share This

Attention, Leeds! Site Vibing Making Days in March

Making Day

Just a quick blog post to remind all creative types in Leeds and the surrounding area to come along to the Site Vibing Making Days previously announced on this blog.

The Site Vibing team require any creative people in the area to help prepare crafty and arty things to make the Cheltenham site look even better in August. Participants can choose to cut and sew fabric, draw and colour, or construct crafty things with card, plastic and other materials. Obviously, any previous experience in these areas is an advantage, but enthusiastic learners welcome!

It's happening at Left Bank Leeds (near Burley Park station, between Hyde Park and Headingley) on Saturday 27th and 28th March. It kicks off at 10am on each day, and the creative activity will continue until 5pm.

Why not pop along and help make the Festival site even prettier?

(London Making Days are in May. We'll post another reminder nearer the time. Check out the Site Vibing Through The Year page for more info.)

Share This

A Sinner Or A Skinner?

Frank

Catholic firebrand* Frank Skinner has written a brilliant, irreverent and provocative article at the Times about his faith and Christianity in the UK. Central to his thesis is the theory that it is good that Christians are in the minority, as that's where they're supposed to be…

.

Christians have always worked best as an unpopular minority. We were surely at our most dynamic when we knelt, eyes to Heaven, hands clasped in prayer, with a Colosseum lion bounding towards us.

That’s why I think Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is wrong to get his cassock in a twist about changing attitudes to Christianity in this country. He speaks of a “strident and bullying campaign” to marginalise Christianity. But that’s great news. “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

.

Spicy stuff! Read it all at the Times website.

What do you think? Is it better that Christians are in the minority? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below…

.

.

* A description which beats "David Baddiel's friend Frank Skinner", I think…

Share This

Kick-off time at the Street Child World Cup

Greenbelt HQ is currently all a-buzz with news from our friends at the Amos Trust as their brilliant event, the Street Child World Cup, kicks off in Durban, South Africa. Some Greenbelt staff, volunteers and friends are out in South Africa as eight teams from disadvantaged areas around the world compete in football, and collaborate in arts projects. There's also a conference at which the street children will be given a voice in discussions with fellow participants from around the world, and the broader international press.

They're posting regular videos from the tournament, so do read their blog, or subscribe to them on YouTube and Twitter and keep up to date with all the action… This excellent video describes the first day of action, and features the fixture draw, and a whole lot of Gary Mabbutt

Share This

Vote for Neema Crafts!

Neema Crafts

Greenbelt Associates CMS have been working with Neema Crafts in Tanzania, a group started by Susie Hart, a British person with a disability, who worked with the Tanzanian Diocese of Ruaha to train people with disabilities in crafts, and run a popular cafe.

Greenbelters who were at the Festival in 2008 will remember a team of people from Neema Crafts, based in the CMS tent, who demonstrated their abilities to make paper from elephant dung.

Dung

Neema Crafts have now been nominated in the Telegraph Expat Best Of British Awards, for best British-run establishments overseas. We'd like to encourage Greenbelters to visit the Neema Crafts page and vote for them!

A win would give them great publicity, as well as networking opportunities to help in fundraising for their physiotherapy unit for disabled children. It would also give them a platform from which to highlight world-wide the issues of childhood disability and deafness in Africa.

So do vote – it's a worthy cause, and a good way to get involved without literally getting your hands dirty.

Share This

Jeff Halper in the UK

jeff

Greenbelt is supporting the speaking tour by the Israeli campaigner Jeff Halper of ICAHD throughout March. Jeff is in conversation with Dr Ghada Karmi, a leading Palestinian writer and academic, to discuss how boycotts and other sanctions can allow the public to have a direct involvement in a complex situation, and achieve concrete solutions – similar to those achieved by global action against South African apartheid.

They're speaking in Exeter, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bradford and London, and there are engagements in each that the public can attend. All dates are free entry. See below for dates and locations…

15 March – Exeter
6.30pm – Institute of Arabic & Islamic Studies Dept, University of Exeter – Streatham Campus

16 March – Birmingham
7.30pm – Birmingham Unite Offices, Broad Street

17 March – Glasgow
7.30pm – Boyd Orr Building, University of Glasgow

18 March – Edinburgh
7.30pm – Augustine Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh

19 March – Bradford
5.00pm – Bradford University

20 March – London
2.30pm – G2 Main Building, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

It promises to be a fascinating and motivating set of discussions that allow a real insight into this challenging situation. We hope to have some audio and video content from Jeff and Ghada up on the Greenbelt site soon.

Share This

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival – London 2010

hrwiff
The charity Human Rights Watch is having its 14th International Film Festival in London from March 17th.

Following close on the heels of the Toronto HRW IFF, and before the New York edition in June, the London IFF features 28 films from 20 countries, which look at a wide range of themes from Accountability and Justice, and Development and Migration, to Closed Societies, among others.

Key films include the Benefit Gala film The Balibo Conspiracy, a story from Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor;

the opening night film Moloch Tropical, a drama about political disintegration in Haiti; and Festival-closer The Sun Behind The Clouds: Tibet's Struggle For Freedom, which explores the tension between the non-violent ways of the Dalai Lama and the impatience of the younger generation.

There's also a stream – Youth Producing Change – dedicated to the work of young filmmakers from across the globe, giving uniquely personal insights into areas of human rights crises.

The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival runs from March 17th to 26th 2010, at the Brixton Ritzy, ICA, Curzon Soho and Curzon Mayfair. For more information on the full range of films, check out the HRW IFF London website, or download the PDF of the Festival Programme.

Share This

February 2010 Podcast: Greenbelt Handmade

In our second podcast of 2010 we take a look at the volunteering dynamic which drives Greenbelt – the handmade Festival.

We talk to Linda Watson, The Festival's volunteer coordinator, about her role and working with so many volunteers, Chris Parker, Site Manager for the Children’s Festival area, Saga Arpino, heading up the Festival’s Site Vibing Team, Luke Warner, a volunteer in the Box Office Team, and Stuart and Karen Radcliffe, husband and wife volunteers in the Festival’s Operations Team.

Click here to download the .mp3 podcast file (27.2MB)

Or stream the audio using the player below.

 
 February 2010 Podcast: Greenbelt Handmade [19:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Timings – so you can dip in and out if you want to:

00.00 – 00.50 – Intro

00.50 – 03.25 – Linda Watson, Greenbelt’s Volunteer Coordinator

03.25– 05.55 – Chris Parker, Site Manager for the Children’s Festival area

05.55– 10.00 – Saga Arpino, head of the Festival’s Site Vibing Team

10.00 – 12.30 –Luke Warner, Festival Box Office volunteer

12.30 – 16.20 –Stuart and Karen Radcliffe, Festival Operations Team

16.20 – 17.55 –Linda Watson, Greenbelt’s Volunteer Coordinator

17.55 – 19.33 –Outro

Resources and links

How to get involved

Volunteering Generally

Apply

FAQs The Teams

Match your skills to the teams

Volunteer Profiles

Children's Festival Team

Site VibingMaking DaysMake bunting!

The Soundtrack

  • Together – Rob Mooney
  • Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto Remix) – Massive Attack
  • Together – Kin
  • Music Box - The Low Anthem
  • A very short sample from Together – Dr. Israel
  • Psyche – Massive Attack
  • March of the Volunteers – Monkey
  • Ticket Taker – The Low Anthem
  • Together – Music from the BBC Series
  • A History of Scotland - BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
  • Better Together – Live feat. G. love – Jack Johnson
  • Join Together – The Who

Credits

  • Narrated by Grace Wroe and Garry Rutter
  • Mixed and Edited – bigJohn Noble
  • Written and Executive Produced by Paul Northup
  • Co-production – bigJohn Noble
  • Narration recording – Iain Archer
  • Field Recording – Paul Northup
Share This

The Jesus Comic

Jesus Comic header

The Bible tells us many things about Jesus, but on one topic it is sadly lacking – namely, "What sort of iPhone Apps would He download?"*

However, it's not too outlandish to imagine that He might like something like The Jesus Comic, an iPhone app that tells the story of His life.

The twist is that the story is told through snazzy orange-hued cartoons, and using only minimal text. The creator of The Jesus Comic, Jason Ramasami, intends this app not to be a replacement for reading the Bible, but a prompt for discussion amongst families, youth-groups and comic fans. The cartoon depictions are sometimes literal, sometimes oblique, and sometimes symbolic.

As a way of using arts to explore faith, as well as a great sideways look at stories that we know so well, The Jesus Comic is a very Greenbelt-y idea, so why not check it out and let us know what you think in the comments below?

It's available from the iPhone Apps Store, and you can check out more information at The Jesus Comic website, Facebook group and Twitter page.

Jesus Comic

* He wouldn't need Shazam, for example, due to omniscience.

Share This

Warm Up For Lent

Those of you looking forward to Shrove Tuesday and Lenten abstinence – there must be some of you out there – will be interested to hear that Greenbelt is hosting the launch of Andrew Rumsey's book of Lent readings "Strangely Warmed: Reflections on God, Life and Bric-a-Brac".

Andrew is Vicar of Christ Church Gipsy Hill. He's a Third Way contributor and a Ship Of Fools columnist. His book is a collection of daily pieces for the forty days of Lent, and is a wry and witty look at everyday aspects of the world that provoke questions of faith – the advertising slogan, the bus journey, the church jumble sale… "Strangely Warmed" aims to present serious doctrinal points in a lighthearted way, and to allow people to enjoy reflecting on faith.

And he's already amassed some fans… Ian Hislop has described the book as "witty, erudite, eloquent and thoughtful", and Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham has said it is "like Spike Milligan doing Thought For The Day".

The event is on Thursday 18th February at 6.30pm, and will take place at All Hallows On The Wall, London Wall, London, EC2M 5ND (click here for a map). Andrew will read from the book, there will be some live music, and there will also be a glass of wine or two to tempt you from your post-Ash Wednesday sobriety.

If you can't make the event, though, don't worry! We'll hopefully have some video content with Andrew at the event up on the website soon.

Share This